Friends, loved ones bolster family after hiker’s death

EVERETT — Randy Stupey was funny, successful and devoted to his family.

He brought people together and put them at ease.

With him gone, people still aren’t sure what to say.

The pain is tremendous.

Many are focusing their efforts on building a trust fund for his wife, Elene, and sons, Landon, 3, and Parker, 2.

Stupey, 30, of Everett, was killed in a hiking accident near Index over Labor Day Weekend.

At the time, Randy Stupey was with his brother, Ryan Stupey, a Clearview firefighter. They believe he slipped on a rock and fell 200 feet.

Hiking and golfing was how the brothers liked to spend time together, Ryan Stupey said Monday. They hadn’t gotten away much since they’d started their families.

“He spent 90 percent of his off time just hanging out with his boys,” Ryan Stupey said.

Randy Stupey ran a contracting business but had scaled back his work to stay at home part-time with his sons, Elene Stupey said.

She always admired how he could tote two toddlers, undaunted, on regular outings to museums, to run errands or to get groceries. He made it look easy, she said.

Randy Stupey was the youngest of seven siblings, but he could connect with all of them. His siblings still meet for Sunday dinners at their parents’ house.

“He just got along with everybody. That was just the way he was,” Elene Stupey said. “He could make anybody laugh. He could relate to anybody.”

Many of the firefighters who work with his brother at Fire District 7 counted Randy Stupey as a friend, firefighter and paramedic Jeremy Yoder said.

Since his death, they’ve been collecting donations for the boys.

The family is overwhelmed by the kindness, Elene Stupey said.

People keep showing up to do one thing or another, even if it’s just to sit and talk, Ryan Stupey said.

He thanks them, but “that still doesn’t feel like enough,” he said.

Realizing that so many people loved Randy Stupey, and loved him so deeply, brings his family peace, Elene Stupey said.

“You’re speechless that somebody else would want to help you that much because their hearts are so big and their compassion is so real,” she said.

“To me it’s just amazing how the whole community has really reached out in compassion and generosity to help, and I think the firefighters have really embodied what it means to stand up and show up for someone and help.”

Rikki King: 425-339-3449; rking@heraldnet.com.

To donate

Randy Stupey, 30, of Everett, and a father of two, was killed in a hiking accident near Index in September. His brother is a firefighter in Clearview, and the crews are asking the community for donations to help his family. More than 1,200 people attended a service last month at St. Mary Magdalen Parish in Everett.

People can give at any Opus Bank branch for the “JSL Trust for Landon and Parker Stupey,” or go to any Fire District 7 fire station.